All Hallows Eve Concert, Haunted Housing setCLARKSVILLE — University of the Ozarks will present a pair of on-campus Halloween events for the local community during the last week of October. At 7 p.m. Oct. 27, Walton Professor of Music Dr. Sharon Gorman and the University Chamber Singers will present the annual All Hallows Eve Concert in Munger-Wilson Chapel. On Oct. 28, the Residential Hall Association will sponsor its annual Haunted Housing event for children 12-and-under in the commun...

Yearly flu vaccinationsDwight Elementary School first-grader Gidian Fuller grimaces Monday afternoon as Russellville School District nurse coordinator Annie Schanink administers a flu vaccine. Flu shots will be given to Oakland Heights and London students on Tuesday, Sequoyah students on Wednesday, middle school students on Thursday, high school and Secondary Learning Center students on Friday, and Crawford and high school students on Monday.

Billingsley Smith wins runoffDOVER — Angie Billingsley Smith will join the Dover Board of Education after defeating Shawn Bates in a runoff election Tuesday. Billingsley Smith received 224 votes, which was a little more than 58 percent, while Bates received nearly 42 percent with 161 votes. "I'm very excited," Billingsley Smith said. "I look forward to bringing positive change and growth." A total of 386 votes were cast Tuesday, with one under vote. Billingsley Smith rece...

ATU investigates threatsA misunderstanding gave some Arkansas Tech University (ATU) students a scare Monday evening. A bomb threat was sent via email to an ATU athletic coach Monday that threatened the Chartwells Women's Sports Complex, which was immediately evacuated and searched, according to an update on campus security email sent to students on Tuesday. Concern spread as students evacuated from the sports complex returned to their residence halls and told staff m...

CenturyLink to connect teachers with technology by offering $20,000 in grants in ArkansasCenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) is connecting teachers with technology for the classroom. The CenturyLink Clarke M. Williams Foundation’s Teachers and Technology grant program opened its application process Oct. 1 for teachers in CenturyLink’s local service areas who want to innovatively implement technology in their classrooms to increase student achievement. Full-time PreK-12 classroom teachers in public or private schools in CenturyLink resid...

Peever honored at school board meetingCLARKSVILLE — Seven-year Clarksville School District staple Jo Ella Peever was recognized during the Clarksville Board of Education meeting Sept. 29. Assistant Superintendent Steven Wyatt honored Peever on her retirement from the district, where she has served as a psychological specialist. In other business, the board approved: • The resignation of Betty Barkley, food service; Jim Douglas, bus driver; Tracie Lovell, migrant tutor, Carla McCan...

Dover seat decided TuesdayDOVER — The five-year term on the Dover Board of Education will be decided during Tuesday's runoff election. Michael Joe Hemmer announced earlier this year he would not seek re-election to the seat after serving five years on the board. During the annual school board election Sept. 16, Angie Billingsley Smith and Shawn Bates emerged from a pool of five candidates as the top vote getters, sending them to a runoff election. Billingsley Smith net...

Meteorologist visits Dover kindergartenersDOVER — Dover Elementary students were able to practice severe weather safety during stormy conditions on Thursday. Kindergarten students were visited by KARK meteorologist Greg Dee on Wednesday. In addition to learning weather safety procedures, the students were filmed for a segment called "Good morning Greg. What's the weather like today?" The segment will air at 6:14 a.m. on Monday and 6:44 a.m. on Tuesday. Kindergarten teacher Casey Taylo...

Health unit provides free flu shotsThe Pope County Health Unit will offer free flu shots during clinics throughout October. The annual drive-thru flu clinic, which is free and open to the public, will be conducted from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 24 at the Pope County Fairgrounds. "[Everyone] coming to the mass clinic needs to bring the medical health insurance card or their Medicaid care and photo ID," Pam Sellers, health unit administrator, said. "There is no charge to anyone at th...

Atkins approves budgetATKINS — The Atkins Board of Education approved the 2014-15 budget and the district's Arkansas Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (ACSIP) during a called meeting Monday. Superintendent Mark Gotcher told the board he purposely over-budgeted expenditures and under-budgeted revenue in the document to leave the district "a cushion" for unexpected expenses. "We're going to receive more money than we have budgeted," he said. Expenditures in the p...

RHS quizzes other schoolsRussellville High School Quiz Bowl students hosted and moderated a tournament Saturday that featured questions they had written. "Having the chance to manage a quiz bowl tournament where we wrote all the questions was an excellent opportunity to gain useful knowledge," senior Trevor Guiltner, RHS Quiz Bowl co-captain, said. Quiz bowl coaches Paul Gray and Brandon Cooper said students researched questions out of topics traditionally used in qui...

Wynne police to up presence at high school WYNNE (AP) — Officials say more police officers will be present next week at Wynne Senior High School after 17 students were involved in a fight. Wynne police say the fight broke out last Friday during a lunch period. No one was hurt in the fight, though school officials say a bystander twisted her ankle. School principal Keith Watson says the fight only last a few minutes and more than 10 teachers responded immediately. School officials say 1...

Clinton School hosting Fulbright Scholar LITTLE ROCK (AP) — The University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service will host Sedef Akgüngör as a Fulbright Scholar in Residence until the end of February 2015. The school is hosting Akgüngör in partnership with Philander Smith College. Akgüngör is a well-known economist and internationalist from Turkey. During her time at the Clinton School of Public Service and Philander Smith College, Akgüngör will work with both schools to devel...

RSD announces purpose, vision and beliefsThe Russellville Board of Education approved the Russellville School District's (RSD) purpose statement, vision statement and core beliefs during a called meeting Monday. The approved items accompany the board's goals, which were approved during the Sept. 18 board meeting. Board President Breanne Davis said the items included in the purpose statement, vision statement and core beliefs were taken in consideration with comments from parents, tea...

Student banned after online threatsEditor's note: According to Arkansas state law, the media is prohibited from publishing the name of a juvenile unless he or she is formally charged with a felony. The juvenile who appeared during felony bond hearings had not been formally charged as of Wednesday afternoon. HECTOR — A 17-year-old male student has been ordered to stay away from the Hector School District after he was arrested on suspicion of terroristic threatening. The juvenile...

Dr. Marc J. Selverstone to lecture at ATUDr. Marc J. Selverstone, chair of the Miller Center Presidential Recordings Program and associate professor at the University of Virginia, will be the guest speaker for the fourth annual David W. Krueger Lecture at Arkansas Tech University. Selverstone will offer a lecture entitled “Eavesdropping on Escalation: The Kennedy White House Tapes and Vietnam” at 6 p.m. on Oct. 9, in the Doc Bryan Student Services Center Lecture Hall. The event, whic...

ATU to host toy drive for tsunami victimsThere are approximately 6,200 miles between the main campus of Arkansas Tech University in Russellville and the region of Japan that was devastated by the tsunami of March 2011. Read the words of Futoshi Toba, major of the city of Rikuzentakata, Japan, and it becomes clear that a pair of English language camps that faculty, staff and students from Arkansas Tech have performed in his grief-stricken land over the past two Augusts have made the t...

Sequoyah additions approved — 9 classrooms, 1 art room will cost around $2 millionThe Russellville Board of Education approved additions to Sequoyah Elementary School after a lengthy discussion during a called meeting Monday. After Van Horn Construction Vice President Chad Weisler reiterated the importance of approving the project soon in order for it to be completed by the first day of school in August 2015, board member Wesley White made a motion to approve a plan that will add 10 rooms to the elementary school. Nine clas...

Early voting for runoff beginsEarly voting begins Tuesday for the lone runoff race from the annual school board election. Angie Billingsley Smith and Shawn Bates will vie for the five-year seat on the Dover Board of Education after emerging with the most votes on Sept. 16 from a pool of five candidates. Billingsley Smith garnered a little more than 31 percent of the votes with 131, while Bates racked up just more than 29 percent with 121 votes, according to official result...